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Louis Nick Di Crescenzo
Louis Nick Di Crescenzo
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Louis Di Crescenzo Obituary
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Anthony "Tony" Crivello
June 25, 2024
My Dearest Louie, I just discovered this site. For whatever reason, you are in my thoughts today, repeatedly. My home is filled with momentos and pieces you created for me, from several pieces of stained glass, to photographs from "Black Patent Leather Shoes". I am forever grateful for your artistry in building and decorating my New York Loft on 28th and 7th Ave. in Manhattan. I can still see it´s glorious finish in my mind. I recall our auto journey´s through Chicago to drive to work in Summit, our times in Evanston and Wilmette, your impersonations of Libby Mages and Dan Goldman, your brilliant comedic mind and physical humor (perhaps only matched during that time by our brilliant friend Glenn F. Haines). Your wonderful portrayal of "Pseudolus" in Frank Galati´s "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to The Forum"... Your brilliant set designs for so many Chicago productions...and on and on. You were the true definition of a "Rennaissance Man" ...gifted in so many ways. I miss you my friend. I miss the innocent, crazy laughter. I cherished our time together, with all our dear compatriots of that era. It was a glorious group, and wonderful time. I still smile when in my mind´s ear I hear your voice say "Gino and Char." Bless you. I know you are making the Saints and Angels laugh as I write. You left an indelible mark. I love you my friend. xo Tony Crivello
John La Marre
April 19, 2020
My belated condolences to my friend from WIU.
Charles Bock
June 19, 2012
To say he was a talented commercial retail designer understates his ability. He was a genius, and his designs and use of space second to none. Louis will always hold a special place in my heart as a friend, colleague, and a decent human being.
Brian Hudkins
February 19, 2012
Besides being a great friend to our entire family and incredibly funny, you had a remarkable vision. While we have the joy of living with your work every day, we still miss you Louie.
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kevin palmer
February 12, 2012
I just found out about this and it's very sad. He was an amazing talent, and so very very funny. Here's to you, old friend.
Donna Gavin
February 10, 2012
Louis, I lost touch with you after Macomb and seeing this is shocking and sad. I will miss your great big spirit in this world. Donna Q. Gavin
Delores (Tyrrell) Dousias
February 5, 2012
Generous, funny, sweet, smart & brilliant! I loved those curly eyelashes!From Kelly High School
Aldona Pikelis Sikora
February 4, 2012
Louie, engraved in my memories of Kelly High School and all the plays and skits and productions we were in together is the anticipated laughter that was sure to come from everyone who watched you perform. A born comedian and engaging actor, all eyes and ears were always drawn to you. The King of ad libs. The Prince of facial caricatures. I, for one, will miss your presence. Now God and the angels all have a front row seat!
Farewell, my old friend!
And 'Smacksa Lipsa' right back atchya!
Deborah Tranelli
December 11, 2011
With Louie I will always remember laughter to the point of tears, his enormous heart and big bear hugs. Little notes and tissue paper flowers left at my dressing table while we were doing Patent Leather Shoes that I've kept all of these years. Our loss is Heaven's gain and my life is truly better for having spent time with him. Rest peacefully, dear friend.
"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever." I miss you with all my heart, Love TT
November 9, 2011
Peggy Roeder
November 8, 2011
Louie was an adopted brother in our family. He was such a good friend, I cried and laughed with him. He was a force of nature, and I'm a better person for knowing him.
Karen Frankel Jones
November 8, 2011
Dear sweet Louie…what delightful memories I have of you!
Spending all those months sharing the stage with you in Patent Leather Shoes, massive amounts of laughter, numerous gatherings with our bonded cast, and your joyous spirit. The night we danced the "featured duet" together in Doo-Waa Doo-Wee is forever etched in my memory and without doubt a highlight!
You designed lights for Hubbard Street when we taped our first TV special for Channel 11. In the backstage footage, included in the aired program, you were caught jete-ing across the stage…classic Louis!
Your humor - side-splitting…pee in your pants.
Your artistic gifts, evident in the stained glass window you crafted for me – amazing.
Your creative capacity, whether designing lights, sets, furniture, home theatres- immense.
Your love of family, in particular your two nephews – limitless.
My most huggable friend, I am enormously grateful for our last visit. As trying as life had been for you in recent times, your delicious wit and abounding spirit still shone through.
With enormous love and gratitude,
Karen (aka Nancy Ralansky)
ps: You are my Jerry Lang…
Paul & Victoria Barrosse
November 8, 2011
Louis was a friend and a vital, valuable and much beloved member of The Practical Theatre Company in the 1980's. A brilliant artist, Louis designed and built two theaters for us, and it was a pleasure and an honor to perform with him. The entire PTC family mourns his loss.
James Quinn
November 8, 2011
To me, my wife Audrey, and all our kids: Steve, Jimmy, Colleen, Eileen and John
(to whom Louie gave 'notes' to after his performance in his high school musical because John always gave him 'notes' after every performance of "Shoes" that he saw.)Louie was one of those very special warm, funny, talented people who you never forget. And we won't. Jim & Audrey Quinn
John Powers
November 8, 2011
Louie - You brought love and laughter to the world. No better way to spend a life. john powers
John Wodynski
November 7, 2011
He wasn't Lou or Louie or Louie D to me, he was Uncle Gooey, and he was more than an uncle. He was my Uncle Mommy.
After my folks split up when I was 5, during the months my brother Dave and I would spend with my mom each year, Uncle Gooey was the man in our lives. We were with my mom during summers and Christmases, so we had nothing but time to kill – no school, no school buddies – those things were back in Spokane in our lives with our Dad. More days than I can remember, we'd roll out of my mom's sloshy water bed (the old-school kind) at some luxurious hour to the call of my mom saying, “JC… DM… Uncle Gooey is here to take you guys to IHOP!” I don't even care to guess how many thousands of dollars he eventually spent on pancakes, over easy eggs and chocolate milk for us.
My parents were hard working and basically blue-collar. My mom was a nurse and my dad worked a civilian job on an Air Force base. Neither had gone to college but had managed to find good jobs to support us well. With his nearly-complete undergraduate education from Western Illinois University, Uncle Gooey was not only the most educated member of our family, but as an actor and theatrical designer, he also lived in another universe from the rest of us – a universe of musicals and TV commercials of sketch comedy and dance, of head shots and casting agents. To my brother and me, Uncle Gooey was a portal into a world of creativity and music and humor and design that we never would have had without him.
Uncle Gooey introduced us to dramatic literature, to photography, to the backstage door and the entirety of Evita sung at the top of our lungs from memory during countless car rides (Uncle Glenn was the only one who could hit Eva's high notes though). I can remember sitting in the front row of Patent Leather Shoes, feet dangling from the theater seat with Gooey smiling at us from on stage. I can remember having the under-construction Practical Theater Company space at Pipers Alley and the Miss Firecracker Contest set at Steppenwolf as summer playgrounds. I remember being back in Spokane and mentioning to friends all the famous people we had met with Uncle Gooey and the incredulous looks on my friends' faces.
I can remember like it was yesterday meeting him at his high-rise apartment at the Grand Ohio in downtown Chicago while I was at Northwestern University. It was a studio apartment, but it was decked out in art prints and original photography. There was a home-made granite-topped table laid out with brie and fruit baguette and cold chardonnay. Anita Baker crooned in the background and the lights of downtown shone out the window. I just felt more sophisticated, more creative, more in the know with Uncle Gooey. I've never had even a fraction of his creative talent or design sensibility, but when I was with him, I felt like it was in me somewhere.
Uncle Gooey also introduced us to the gourmet life and to travel. He took me, my brother and my cousins to swanky restaurants and let us order whatever we liked. He took us on vacations and taught us how to enjoy life in a hotel suite (and how to work the upgrade from a regular room).
The last years of his life were not nearly as easy or as glamorous as his earlier years. His health failed him, and he dramatically survived a run in with cancer in 2004. Despite his absolute brilliance as a designer, after he set out to work for himself, he never seemed to profit from his work anywhere near the way he deserved to. He could never bring himself to produce a “budget” design for a client. Even if it ate away all of his profits, he would make each space a masterpiece, because anything less was unacceptable to him.
After his sister Susan (my mom) died in 2006, he lived mostly alone in her house, then on his own. He received support from family and close friends (you know who you are, and Thank You!), but his health slowly declined and he was never able to return to the creative work that he loved or the social life he once enjoyed. He was an incredibly strong, tough man, and at times it seemed like no illness could outlast him. Unfortunately that proved not to be true in the end. He fought bravely, but once it was determined that his condition was terminal, he passed quickly and peacefully in Hospice care, a mere 56 years old.
It doesn't seem real that he's not with us anymore. He is now on the Other Side with my Grandma Char and with my mom and brother, who, like Uncle Gooey, both left us far too soon. I know without a doubt, though, that countless pieces of Uncle Gooey live in me and in all those whose lives he touched with his talent or with his kind, generous heart. He will be missed terribly, but he has left us with a bottomless well of wonderful memories and a body of inspired work that can stay with us always.
I'll sign off the way I ended every phone call or visit with him:
Loveyouunclegooey!
My long time best friend! You were an inspiration to me and I love you and will miss you greatly!!!
Deb Gohr
November 7, 2011
Theresa Smalara
November 7, 2011
"No one ever really dies as long as they took the time to leave us with fond memories"
Thank you, Louie, for taking the time to leave us with many wonderful memories!
Love, your sister
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